Saturday, July 18, 2015

Mom's been doing good. Here she is this afternoon sitting in her recliner and washing her hands. I've been trying to have her do things with her hands (anything she can do) so that she keeps them working as long as possible.

She's been really enjoying watching documentaries about the states on Netflix. Every once in a while she'll say, "I didn't know that before," and usually I can truthfully say, "Neither did I."

Monday, July 13, 2015

I came downstairs this morning saying: "What is that smell!?!" And I found this stinky cat who smelled like sewage and looked like he'd been bathing in something not nice. Apparently, from the water mess around the toilet, he'd fallen into the toilet and got his legs stuck down the drain of it. (The toilet was flushed, but from the look of things, he'd managed to stir stuff up from the depths.) David (he doesn't have work today, thank God) and I bathed the smelly cat, and he actually was purring as all the yicky got suds and rinsed off him.

Then, I went to Mommy and told her the poor kitty got hurt, and could he rest in her room for a few minutes so the dog doesn't bother him? She said he could so here he is, resting on the floor. We've towel dried him, and he seems much happier than he did a little while before this picture was taken.

So, there you have it, Mom might always be telling the cats, "You get out of here!" when they nose open the screen door and come to visit, but really, when they need her, she's there for them. lol.

Saturday, July 11, 2015

Mom is a little grumpy today, and my tricks I play aren't working as well as usual. For example, if in the middle of getting the bedding and things changed out she doesn't want to roll over to her other side (I roll her using the lift pad), and when I say:

"Now we are going to roll over toward the organ"

She says:

"NO. I am not doing that."

I say something like:

"Then let's roll toward the door instead." (same direction)

And she is all happy that she is getting "her way" and says:

"Okay."

When that kind of trickery works, then our morning goes smoothly, but today she really is not feeling well. She didn't want to get out of bed, but I wanted her to. Stephan is here today, and it is an opportunity for her to get moved about some. So, now that she has finally decided to get out of bed, I coaxed the "smile" you see on her face.

She is watching a documentary about the States of the United States on Netflix, and the narrator was talking about an Englishman whose last name is "Gorgeous," and I said to mom;

"Did you hear what his last name is? It's Gorgeous," and she smiled a little. Then I said:

"I'm going to change my name to 'Laura Gorgeous'," and that got the look you see above.

You all know the look she's giving even though I only caught a small glimpse of it with the camera.

(EDIT - Oh, and I should add that I think we should get a small pad that has air pressure changes, like the large pad she has on her bed, but I can't find one. I've looked on Amazon. If any of you know a place to get smaller one for the recliner, let me know.)

Friday, July 10, 2015

I remember when mom was staying with Jeanie, and Jeanie told me one day that mom was in so much pain that mom was sure she had to go to the emergency room. So, since she didn't seem in any real emergency-room type distress to Jeanie, Jeanie explained to mom that mom needed to take a shower, and get dressed, and then they'd go.

While Jeanie showered mom, she had a BM and felt better. At the time I remember thinking how scary it must be to not know what that feels like, and to have it happening to you. Today something really similar happened again.

I hesitated about posting this, but then I thought that just in case somebody else ever reads this blog who is taking care of someone with Alzheimer's, it might be important - much more important than the birds out the window.

I got Mom into the shower about an hour ago, and she started almost crying that "it's making a hole in my back" and "It hurts me! It hurts me!"

I didn't think about normal bodily functions, I was trying to see if the shower chair was positioned badly so that maybe her tailbone was resting on it uncomfortably. She was too slippery for me to try to lift her back, so I just decided to rinse her off and get her back to the bed and out of the shower chair ASAP. Then, while I was rinsing her off, she went to the bathroom, and I realized how it must feel to have a healthy sized BM if you don't what's happening to you. How scary that must be.

Mom usually goes three or four times a day - just small amounts. So, a large BM is not common for her.

She seems to feel better now, and she's all clean and resting comfortably, but the scary was real for her.

Well, that's enough of the yicky. Here's a picture of the birds mom was watching out the window before I took the picture at the top of the post.

No hummingbirds yet, but I have to fill the feeder every, single day.

It was full this morning, and the suet feeder was filled a few days ago.

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Mom had a busy day today. She got a call from her sister, Bonnie, and in honor of the Fourth of July, she's been watching Ken Burn's documentary "National Parks."

Aunt Bonnie has sent us a story about her life to read, and Mommy and I are probably going to read it together tomorrow. I was going to read it today, but the fellows are here and underfoot and so we'll wait for tomorrow.

Mom's gotten a little sick of the dolls. She was complaining to me that they never say a word. So, I took them off the bed. (She was fussing at them.)

Here is a pic of her earlier today just before she got frustrated at the dolls.

Friday, July 3, 2015

This morning when I came in to check on her, Mom was busy trying to fix this doll's hair. She kept asking him: "What happened to you, huh?" I managed to get a pic of that mid-sentence here.

Here she is trying to smooth down his crazy mop of a head.

The two pics above were taken quite early this morning when I first went in to wake her and to give her her meds and applesauce. The picture below was taken a few minutes ago after she took her Friday shower.